About Ed Rutan

During his senior year at Columbia forty-five years ago, Ed Rutan was torn between going to law school or to graduate school in history. He chose law school, but he resolved that one day he would write a publishable work of American History. Now, after a rewarding career as a lawyer, he has retired and is returning to American History.

Rutan served as the City Attorney for Salt Lake City from 2002 to 2013. He was instrumental in the development of Salt Lake City’s ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation and the City’s Open Government initiative. He also played a key role in the preservation of the Bonneville Bench above Salt Lake City as natural open space. Rutan received the Dr. G. Homer Durham Distinguished Service Award from the Utah Chapter of The American Society for Public Administration in 2013.

Before serving as City Attorney, Rutan worked for nearly twenty years in AT&T’s legal department. Starting off in New York City, he was later posted to Brussels as Counsel for Europe and the Middle East and then worked in Dallas as Law and Government Affairs Vice President for AT&T’s Southwest Region.

He began his legal career as a litigation associate at a major New York City law firm after graduating cum laude from Harvard Law School and clerking in federal district court.

About seven years ago, Rutan requested a copy of the military pension file of his great-great-grandfather, who served in the 179th New York Volunteers during the Civil War, from the National Archives. What started out as a family history project slowly transitioned to a full blown history of the 179th New York Volunteers. Along the way he self-published The Civil War Service of James C. Rutan.

Rutan and his wife Lynne live in Park City, Utah where they enjoy skiing, hiking and traveling.